Union Budget 2025: Balancing growth, demand, and financial strategy

The finance minister must focus on her direct responsibilities, not on programmes where her role is supportive

In a few days, the finance minister will present the 2025-26 Budget. Judging by past trends, much of her speech will elaborate on development programmes and schemes to be implemented by other ministries. The finance minister’s Budget speech last year consisted of 165 paragraphs, with the first part — mostly focused on expenditure proposals—accounting for roughly 70 per cent of the speech. The elaboration of expenditure proposals focused primarily on programmes, which must have been developed by other government departments responsible for their implementation.

 

The finance minister should indicate the expenditure pattern in the Budget more from the perspective of